Monday, October 31, 2016

Several years ago I began to collect a list of books that godparents can give to their godchildren. Most importantly, I wanted to tag each book with a minimum age. I've decided finally to share a version of that list online, though I will keep tweaking my list as people bring ideas to me. Ideally, I'd like the list never to run more than two pages long, with better books always replacing others.

Some of these books are "sacred," and some are "secular." Especially for young kids, I like to blur this distinction. For older kids, it's important to talk about why we make a distinction. Some books that aren't explicitly Christian, like To Kill a Mockingbird, nevertheless make strong statements about what it means to be a Christian in the world.

For the sake of time, I'm not linking all these books to Amazon. Besides, it's always better to buy books in person or through a vendor that needs your money more than Amazon does. In Seattle, we have both the Episcopal Bookstore and the St. Mark's Cathedral Shop. You may have equivalent vendors in your context.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Upon hearing that we
at St. Paul's were planning an Adult Formation series called “Faith and Politics” two
weeks before the most contentious presidential election of all our lifetimes, I
think some people thought we’d lost all sense. They’re not necessarily wrong.

But
since when was the Christian faith all that sensible? I mean, I’m getting ready
to preach a sermon on Jesus’ sage advice, “Love your enemies.” Huh?

Jim Schmotzer and I started meeting to plan this series many
weeks ago, and we spent a long time considering how easy it would be for such a
series to go very badly. Especially in the area of politics, if we’re not
working at being self-aware, it’s easy to show up to the conversation with a
one-sided agenda. To that end, we used the entire first session not to talk about
faith and politics, but to talk about the assumptions and group norms we wanted
to establish before the conversation even begins.

First we showed a
brief video from the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most
Rev. Michael Curry. We gave our definition of and vision for Adult Formation
and talked about the reasons that a series on faith and politics makes sense:

Adult formation is a lifelong
process of integration—discovering and experiencing God in all dimensions of
our lives in order to grow into the full stature of Christ. (see Ephesians 4:13)

The vision of the Adult Formation
Committee of St. Paul’s is to implement and support opportunities for the
congregation to mature in faith as we discover and experience God in all
dimensions of our lives.

Our goal for this series is to help
you understand your personal political history, how you got where you are now,
and also to help you to become ever more conscious of the ways that your faith
informs your politics.

Next we talked about the Johnson Amendment
as a way of clarifying the church’s tax-exempt status and the realms in which
the church can (and should?) get into politics.

These are the assumptions we brought to the table for the
group to consider as we begin the series.

We’re not going to
tell you how to vote, and none of us will tell each other how to vote. We’re
not going to make assumptions about what another person’s vote means. This
class is for sharing ideas and for learning together … not for changing minds.
You have the right to change your mind … or not.

The church is not a
place to escape from the world of politics, but a workshop for
extrapolating the consequences of our decision to follow Jesus Christ in every
aspect of our lives … including our participation in civil society. And
although we’re doing this toward the end of a heated election season, we don’t
want to limit this class to this particular election cycle. We relate to the
world politically every day.

Politics can be
divisive because none of us has all the answers, and that makes us feel
insecure. The arena of politics is big, important, unpredictable, and never
finished. We may vote with a political destination in mind, but in reality, we
only ever vote for a political direction, based on both our hopes and our
fears.

As Christians, we are
to allow our faith to inform our politics, and not the other way around.
Christians of any political party are able to assert this without hypocrisy. In
baptism we vow to follow Jesus Christ as Lord, and to hold Jesus above all
earthly rulers.

Christianity is
inherently political, but that’s not the same as being partisan. No
political party lives fully into God’s vision of the world as expressed in
Jesus Christ ... and no political party will ever do so. But our Christian
faith makes demands on our lives that do and must cause us to engage in the
world of politics.

There are people in
this room who intend to vote for different presidential candidates and
different down-ballot candidates and measures. And Jesus has commanded us to
love one another. The church, of all places, should be a place where people can
disagree fiercely while loving and serving wholly. The fact that the church
isn’t often this way is a sign of our human brokenness and calls us to renewed
efforts to love as Jesus loved.

We are not defined by
the political parties with which we may choose to align. Our political
identities can drive a wedge in a relationship the moment they’re revealed,
whereas people of various political identities can come together and do good
work together in a specific context.

Our political
preferences are determined through a variety of internal and external processes
that we ourselves may not fully understand. And that goes for all of us, no
matter how much we’ve considered the matter. Even so, we hope that this series
will help each of us to shed more light on our own political inclinations.

In this series, we
are on holy ground, because we seek to be fully ourselves while also opening
ourselves to growth and change. The Christian life cannot flourish without
an acceptance that change is God’s will, and that growth is God’s desire for
our lives.

Conflict is an
invitation to intimacy, and it is more important for Christians to be loving
than to be right. If you find yourself getting “hooked” by a conversation
or by somebody’s inability to act based on the above assumptions, remember
these things.

Only after all that background work did we establish group
norms that we will choose to live by for the other three weeks. These norms
were offered by the participants, not planned ahead of time:

No fist-fighting.

Listen with an open mind in order to understand. Try to
“listen under” what the other is saying. Reflect back what you hear. “What I
hear you saying is _______.”

Here is a model to use right away when
feelings are hurt: “I felt _______ when you ________. The story I’m making up
in my head is _______. I promise to ___, and what I’d like from you is ____.”

Understand that some people process best through their
feelings, and others through their brains.

Ask for clarification, and understand that others may need
clarification. Don’t assume that people know what you know.

You have permission to participate or to opt out.

Speak for yourself—not for others.

Before speaking, ask yourself: “Is this true? Is this fair?
Is this helpful? Is this kind?”

Buddha: “To respond from anger is to respond from weakness.”

And so we have begun our four-week exploration of faith and
politics. In week two, we’ll explore examples in the Bible and in church
history of faith and politics overlapping for better or worse. In week three,
we’ll explore our own political and faith histories and learn from our own past
how we got to be where we are. And in week four? Well, we’ll see … Jim and I
have lots of ideas, but for now, we’re staying open to see where the group
goes.